Sometimes I’m inspired by something when I sit down to write (today it was an image) and my brain gets hooked on it and even I wonder…how am I gonna tie this into sobriety? I feel like I’m on some Reality TV show akin to Chopped (where the chefs all get a basket of secret ingredients and have to make something out of them.)

“Today’s writer’s basket is about Wind Power…you have 7 minutes to create a totally readable and enjoyable blog post about it…now go!”

So…here’s the thing about wind power. It’s renewable (duh) and it’s cost competitive to produce (especially since, like everything else, the turbines are produced overseas at the hands of incredibly cheap labor.) It’s the fastest growing renewable source of energy on the planet and it’s local..in other words your wind = your power.

But it’s not all roses with wind energy . The industry is incredibly over-subsidized (meaning too many tax breaks to make it of any economic benefit to anyone except politicians who want to rant about how much they’re doing to secure sustainable energy.) Wind turbines destroy ecosystems (I’m a little treehugger, sorry, but really, my treehugger mentality comes from a core belief that EVERYTHING affects everything. There is nothing that we do or that happens in isolation on this planet, at the micro or macro level.) Wind energy doesn’t really reduce our dependence on oil, since (and correct me if I’m wrong here) only about 1% of American electricity is oil driven anyway., and it’s hard to claim (yet) that wind energy is benefitting the economy since most of the long-term jobs it creates are low paid maintenance work.

Still, it has a lot of potential, doesn’t it? Especially if we can learn to really draw more power from it.

BAM! There it is…with 3 minutes left on the clock, I just found my link back to sobriety.

Where do you derive your power from? We know that in terms of our addictions, lack of power (why can’t I stop snorting drain cleaner?) is our problem.

The 12×12 says that by the time we get to Step 2, we’re kind of screwed. In Step 1, we admit we’re alcoholic (and trust me, once you admit that, your drinking will NEVER ever be the same. Try sitting in a bar having a drink with a head full of AA…ugh!) So I admit my life is a mess and now you tell me that nothing but dependence on a power greater than myself can help me. Fantastic.

I can get into all kinds of drama here about whether or not I believe in a power greater than myself–let’s call it God for the sake of simplicity. I may reject the idea of a god. I may have a very specific god based in religion. Or I may just think (as I did when I got here) that I wouldn’t want anything to do with a God that wanted anything to do with me. That, by the way, is the ultimate expression of self-loathing. Either way, the fact is that I need to just “resign from the debating society” (p.26) and stop bothering myself with deep thoughts about God. Sober alcoholics (and drug addicts) “tread innumerable paths in their quest for faith.” (p.27) I absolutely love that line. It lets me take a deep breath and know that there’s no wrong way to do it. As the 12×12 points out, it’s all about getting across the threshold. That’s what ‘We came to believe’ means. Once across, faith broadens, widens, deepens, and for most of us, it does so exponentially. Because you can’t have crawled out of a gutter and lived with the shame we live with, and then find yourself becoming useful, wanted, needed, depended upon…without somehow picking up a a little faith along the way. Even you will not believe who you become inside this journey.